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Ottilie Markholt "The Concern of All: Tacoma Working People and Their Unions: 1883-1895" manuscript, Part 2

Ottilie Markholt was born on Febuary 25, 1916 in Candle, Alaska. She was an active member of the Pierce County labor movement and published several works on the history of labor unions. She died in Tacoma, Washington on November 25, 2004.

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IHI *
CHAPTER XL
THE UNION DRIVE CONTINUES
The surge of union organizing in Tacoma was part of a national thrust
by working people in these last years of relative economic stability.
Organizing was in the a i r , beyond the hegemony of any one group of union
activists such as the Trades Council, Each new union, each gain in the
campaign for shorter hours, reinforced workers1 confidence in their ability
to improve their lives. Except when hard times and high unemployment upset
normal relationships, this subjective perception by working people of their
economic power on the job was at least as important as objective conditions
in the workplace.
Employers watched the union surge with increasing apprehension,
which was reflected in much of the press. From a mild interest in the
betterment of the laboring classes, many newspapers shifted to sharp criticism
of unions and their walking delegates. Rather than depend solely on voluntary
services of members to resolve grievances with employers and sign up new
employees, unions were beginning to designate and pay walking delegates to
represent them on the job. For employers, the appearance of walking delegates
signified increasing union power and independence.
For Protection and Shorter Hours
The union drive continued in Tacoma, both within and outside the
orbit of the Trades Council. In November 1890 the Journeymen Butchers1
Fraternal and Protective Association was formed with the aid of an organizer
from Portland. The union announced that "the object of the fraternity is
for mutual benefit and protection, and not for the purpose of outraging the
bosses in any way or stirring up strikes.11’*'
Members of Mt. Tacoma Lodge No* 8 , United Order of Linemen, gave
their first b a ll, with an electrical display, in Januaiy 1891. The Order
was a secret union of telegraph linemen with headquarters at Denver and
lodges in various western states. The local lodge disappeared the following
year.
Organization was not confined to men. While most married women stayed
home, teaching was an accepted occupation for women who must work for wages.
Malissa Bruce, niece of the molder Robert Bruce, taught school. The
Tacoma Women's Teachers1 Club was organized in 1891 around the teachers1
objection to taking both county and city teaching examinations. The Trades
Council endorsed their demand for legislation exempting city teachers from
taking the county examination and invited the club to a ffilia te . The
teachers did not accept the invitation.
The Ledger warned in November 1890 against Laborfs increasing strength:
So far Washington has suffered little from the labor troubles which
have afflicted the east. Business has been good. Labor has been in
demand. The employer has been making fa ir profits and could afford to
pay satisfactory wages. But the time is not far off when the same
conditions will prevail here as in the east and the same troubles will
follow if they are not guarded against.
Editor Randolph F. Radebaugh counseled working people seeking to
improve their condition to educate themselves to manage their affairs better.
He continued: "To remedy the faults and evils complained of trade unions
of various sorts have been formed, but they have fallen far short of the
expectations centered in them* because of lack of' skill in-their management. 11
Radebaugh charged they struck when they should have negotiated and failed to
distinguish between skilled and unskilled workers, asking the same benefits
for both. "They have weakly surrendered their liberties to walking delegates
o
and have suffered a tyranny more remorseless than that of Russia.11
Radebaugh, a man with varied business interests, sold a half interest
in the Ledger to Nelson Bennett of the Northern Pacific group in 1890, and
two years later he gave up the editorship. Bennett hired C .A . Snowden,
fonner editor of the Chicago Times, to replace Radebaugh. Although news
was often reported impartially, the Ledger1 s editorial policy hardened into
consistent hostility to organized labor.
The other major newspaper, the Democratic Tacoma Daily News, was
more sympathetic to unions. For years it carried a weekly column of local
and national labor news, including a report of Trades Council meetings. In
an editorial headed, "The Laboring Man Is Not An Anarchist," the News declared
that working people sought "changes which will insure the laborer a more
equitable division of the products of his labor."
All talk of anarchy hinders the carrying out of labor's program.
There is no country under the sun where the great economic experiment
can be so well tried out as this, and no country where it is more certain
to be tried. The ballot is the only weapon to be used, and when the
laboring classes learn that they have the power and that by united effort
they can assure success they will close the mouths of those demagogues
who talk as i f the laboring man of America were a destroyer and a lover
of disorder and r u m . v
The Norwegian Labor Society sponsored a lecture January 2 1 , 1891*
on the eight-hour movement. William H. Fehse spoke for the Trades Council,
denouncing the wage cut on city work from $2.00 to $1.75 a day. He called
for equality for women in hours of labor and pay and urged the workers to
use their ballots to secure reforms. "Organize yourselves in one common
brotherhood, making the concern of one the concern of a l l . Then you will
soon get back to the $2 rate, which God knows is little enough in this
country, thereby saving your independence, and your vote will be cast
according to the dictates of your conscience."^
Two nights later William Jackson Armstrong of Washington, D .C .
addressed a large meeting on "The Masses and the Millionaires." He was
introduced by William Galvani and joined on the platform by representatives
of several unions. He condemned the idle rich as exploiters created by the
economic system and charged that the prosperity of the masses was ruined by
trusts and monopolies.
The present order of society is rotten and riotous in the midst of
abundance. Every day we read in the paper of monster strikes and
lockouts, throwing thousands of men out of employment. I f you want to
know how many men are out of work put an ad in the paper for one man and
see how many apply.'
A private employment agency in Tacoma advertised: "Employment wanted
for 500 laborers, teamsters, axemen, farm and garden hands, miners, mechanics,
cooks and others."^ The Ledger admitted uneasily in May 1891 that business
was 20 percent off nationally over the same week a year previously. "The
business situation is not encouraging. The whole country, in fact the whole
world, seems to be having a sick spell. . . . Things apparently have been
deranged and there is nothing to do but wait until the derangement is
removed and a cure affected." The paper blamed "the uncertainty caused by
the unexpected outflow of gold, and by the agitation of the silver and fiat
money questions, and labor troubles."'
Dull times did not immediately threaten the Tacoma unions. The
Trades Council made elaborate plans for the visit of AFL President Samuel
' I S O
Gompers in March 1891. The Knights objected to arrangements to lodge him
at the Tacoma Hotel because it had fired its employees for joining a union.
Moreover, the hotel had been the meeting place for drawing up indictments
against people active in the anti-Chinese movement and for merchants
organizing against the clerks1 early-closing campaign. The Council switched
to the Grand Pacific Hotel. Gompers1 visit was marked by a carriage
procession of the presidents of local unions and a 110-piece volunteer band
of union musicians. In his speech March 22, Gompers scored Acting Governor
Charles F . Laughton for opposing anti-Pinkerton and time check b il l s , and
urged support for the eight-hour movement and the local clerks' campaign for
shorter hours.
The White Cooks and Waiters' Protective Association was organized
in January 1891, with sixty charter members. The union joined the Trades
Council, reporting nine union houses. The Council assisted the Musicians,
Journeymen Horseshoers, Shingle Weavers, and Stationary Ihgineers to organize.
The Shingle Weavers successfully resisted a wage cut in the mills. The
Carpenters renewed agitation for the eight-hour day, and the Painters
established nine hours in a l l but one shop in March.
The Brewery Workers, backed by the Trades Council, prepared to strike
May 1 for nine hours. A council committee secured an agreement with every
boss brewer for the nine-hour demand, with Sunday work considered overtime.
More unions joined the Trades Councils the Locomotive Firemen, Journeymen
Butchers, Stone Cutters, Hod Carriers, and Switchmen.
After several years of planning for an industrial exposition, a group
of Tacoma business people organized the Western Washington Industrial
Exposition Company, purchased a block of land bounded by North 7th and 8th
Streets, G Street, and Tacoma Avenue, and let the contract for a large
two-story brick building about May 1, 1891, to Opperman and Berens for
/si
$72,447. The contractors accepted $10,000 in exposition stock as part
payment, expecting to work it off on material dealers and suppliers. When
the dealers refused to be coerced into taking stock, which the News termed
worthless, the contractors began, with more success, to force it on their
carpenters and laborers.
To counteract the firm's ads in Chicago and Portland for carpenters
and laborers, the Trades Council sent circulars around the country warning
workers against the stock-buying deal. Hearing that a hundred carpenters
were needed, a News reporter applied for work. He was told wages were 30
cents an hour, with 20 percent of the wages payable in stock, leaving 24
cents cash. Going rate for a good carpenter was 35 to 40 cents an hour.
Carpenters and laborers were not employed unless they agreed to accept the
stock, but Tacoma bricklayers were too well organized to be forced to buy
stock. The “typographical Union cancelled its pledge of $100 ball proceeds
for exposition stock because nonunion labor was used.
Franklin Miners1 Lockout
Tacoma labor rallied to the support of Knights of labor coal miners
as the Oregon Improvement Company's campaign to drive out the union reached
a climax the summer of 1891. Arrival of a new superintendent for the
Franklin and Newcastle mines in King County two years previously signaled
the beginning of trouble. Where relations between company and union had
been peaceful, now the Newcastle miners were subjected to petty tyrannies.
Superintendent T .B . Corey tried to create dissention between the AFL local
and the Knights assembly. When Corey tried to force the miners to sign
iron-clad contracts to abandon their unions, they refused, and the organizations
united for common defense. They presented joint demands and began negotiations.
Corey abruptly stopped bargaining and left the area.
15%
Meanwhile, the nearby Gilman mine moved against the Knights of Labor.
About the beginning of 1891, Superintendent Parker began transferring certain
miners, including Knights of Labor activists, to two particular pits. Then,
claiming overproduction, he closed down the two p its, idling 100 men. Parker
refused to allow the 200 working miners in the other four pits to divide the
work with the idle miners, and he blacklisted twenty-five men so they could
not get work anywhere in the state. At this point, early in March 1891, the
miners struck. The Knights charged the layoffs and blacklist were to break
the union. The company brought in Sullivan guards and evicted striking
miners living on company property.
Ventilation in the other Oregon Improvement Company mine at Franklin
was so bad by the summer of 1890 that the mine inspector threatened to close
down the operation. Accordingly, in September the company stopped all
mining except preparatory work for opening new shafts, throwing 200 miners
out of work. A few miners went to work at Black Diamond, but most stayed
at Franklin, expecting to go back to work when the new slopes were ready.
On May U , 1891, the Western Central Labor Union received word that
Superintendent Corey had shipped 650 blacks from St. Louis to work at Franklin.
The blacks arrived May 17 armed with Spencer carbines and revolvers
and accompanied by one hundred Sullivan guards armed with Winchesters. They
went into camp close to the mouth of the main slope and erected a barbed
wire fence around the mine. Guards established a deadline and prevented
white miners from communicating with the imported blacks. The white miners
were offered work if they would give up their Knights assembly and sign
iron-clad contracts forswearing the union. They were locked out when they
refused, and the blacks worked the mine. The few white miners who deserted
the union and scabbed were despised by their former associates.
In a letter May 21 to the state president of the sheriff's
I S 3
association, Pierce County Sheriff James H. Price protested the illegal
presence of Sullivan guards at Franklin. The Tacoma Trades Council condemned
# OVJWYS*
the mine owke^s for "introducing Pinkerton thugs and government of state in
. 8
allowing them to do s o ." The Ledger defended the owners, declaring the
frequency of strikes
has done more than any one thing to bring about the present depression,
and made employment hard to get at any price. It has kept new enterprises
from starting and old ones from growing, and has thus lessened the demand
for labor. It has made all business dependent on labor so uncertain
that men of means engage in it reluctantly and much prefer something
g
less remunerative which is accompanied by less uncertainty.7
The Western Central labor Union of Seattle sponsored a drive for a
miners1 relief fund. May 26 Charles Seymour, master workman of Knights of
Labor Stevedores1 Assembly, presided at a fund-raiser in Old Town, addressed
by E .J . McConnell and Mr. Nagle of Seattle. Sheriff Price was called on to
speak:
You a ll know how I feel about the labor question. As chief peace officer
of this county, I will say that I see no reason for alarm, nor for the
placing of armed guards at the mines. There was no occasion, to my mind,
for the importation of a crowd of men, coming in to override the power
invested in the chief peace officer—the sheriff of King county. I do
not say this with any i l l feeling to our corporations, who are developing
our resources, but I am decidedly opposed to an indiscriminate collection
of men assuming the duties of duly appointed officers. I f forty strikes
should occur there is no need to call in an armed m o b .^
County Commissioner Joseph Johns, who had worked with McConnell for
• / S i j
years in the Knights of Labor, told the audience that
A few years ago coal miners were obliged to buy their supplies from the
company they worked for, to work long hours and to board at the company's
boarding houses. Now by the action of the Knights of Labor these
restrictions to the miner's liberty are removed.^
He "denounced the action of the Oregon Company in importing Negro miners"
and "concluded by saying that in this case, as in others, the workingmen
12 should stand together to see that the miners secured their rights."
The meeting pledged about $100 for re lie f. The same night a mass
meeting sponsored by the Carpenters on the eight-hour question also subscribed
money for r e lie f. The Carpenters donated directly to the locked-out miners,
and the Typographical Union gave $100 proceeds from its ball. Pierce County
unions raised about a third of the relief fund.
On realizing their position, some of the blacks signified their
willingness to leave the area i f they had transportation. A communication
from E .J . McConnell was presented at the Tacoma Trades Council meeting May 28,
asking endorsement for bearer to Conductors and Brakemen's Unions. laid
over as not looking O .K . . . . Colored men returned with regular
credential from W .C .L .U . . . . Voted to endorse credentials recommending
men to assistance of all Union men in all honorable w a y s .^
The blacks with credentials from the Western Central Labor Union were union
miners helping the strikers tyr convincing black scabs to quit and getting
them away from the mines. Their purpose in talking to the Conductors and
Brakemen's unions may have been to persuade train crews to let departing
blacks ride the freights unmolested. The Bricklayers donated $25 to the
black miners from Seattle. Twelve to fifteen blacks were deserting the
• t s s
Franklin mine each day and making their way to Tacoma, destitute. There the
police ran them out of town*
On June 4 a group of miners, their wives, and the Western Central
Labor Union filed a suit in equity in King County Superior Court against the
Oregon Improvement Company and M.G. Sullivan, in command of the Franklin
armed guards. The plaintiffs sought to disarm the guards, charging them
with interfering with miners1 access to their homes by harassment and
intimidation. The company was literally surrounding their homes with fences
and sheds. One young guard accidentally killed another guard while
illustrating the proper way to draw a gun. The News condemned the guards:
The presence of armed detectives at Franklin has already caused
the wife of one of the white miners to lose her mind. Whole families
are prisoners and are not allowed to pass the sentries without giving
the password, while many other indignities are practiced by the imported
"guardians of the peace." It is to be hoped that the effort being made
to have them disarmed and dispersed will s u c c e e d .^
The continued harassment forced the miners and their families out
of their homes. They built about a hundred rough cabins in a wooded canyon
off company property. The June days passed with the locked-out miners camped
in the woods. By this time the Newcastle miners were also on strike against
the Oregon Improvement Company.
At 3:0 0 a.m. on Sunday, June 28, a train picked up eighty black
miners and ten guards at Franklin, bound for the Newcastle mine. Two hours
later the scabs were'delivered to Newcastle, to join sixty whites working
in the mine. The train picked up additional black scabs in Seattle and
headed for Franklin Sunday evening. Approaching Franklin the guards, most
of them drunk, began firing their revolvers from the train. The scab miners
' isu
heard the gunshots, thought they were being attacked, and boiled out of their
camp to the edge of the canyon* They emptied their weapons in the direction
of the cabins, as terror-stricken women and children fled into the woods.
The barrage from an estimated five hundred scabs and guards lasted half an
hour. The miners did not return the fire. A woman inside her cabin was
shot in the breast.
Thomas Morris, a locked-out Franklin miner, and Edward J . Williams,
a Black Diamond miner, were walking along a trail near Franklin when the
gunfire erupted. Superintendent Park B. Robinson grabbed his gun and shot
them as the unarmed men begged for their lives. Morris died immediately, but
Williams lived long enough to make a statement of the facts. A gun was
found under the body of Morris. After investigating the evidence, W.A. Ityan,
Tacoma News reporter, concluded that the company or the sheriff had planted
the gun to substantiate Robinson's story that he shot in self-defense. One
scab was wounded during the disorder. Blacks blamed the union miners. Two
companies of state militia were hastily called up, arriving at Franklin about
midnight.
The miners buried their dead in the Black Diamond cemetary on June 30.
The Franklin miners* band and a large delegation of men, women, and children
accompanied the bodies on a flatcar. At Black Diamond they were met by 440
men and women. After the service only one woman and twenty-five men returned
to the canyon camp at Franklin. The Black Diamond miners were equally
frightened. After blacks were reported in the vicinity, the miners and their
families spent the night in the town hall, fearful of attack.
Terror continued in the canyon at Franklin. Ityan estimated there
were about thirty rifles and two hundred rounds of ammunition in the camp.
The miners organized a home guard of twenty men to protect their families.
The mine boss's wife appeared in camp June 30 with the story that the blacks
t s n
planned to attack the camp after the men left for the funeral, sack and bum
the cabins, and k ill the women and children. Again the women and children
fled to the woods. On their return to camp the next day, another rumor
circulated that the blacks would attack that night. Two hundred fifty men,
women, and children returned to the woods, leaving a group of men to guard
the camp, including Master Workman J.W. Bailey of the local Knights of labor
assembly. News reporter Ryan spent the night with the only family remaining
in camp. In the woods during the night a woman gave birth to a baby, who
died immediately.
The News reporter concluded that the "whole thing was deliberately
pre-arranged" to scare the union miners. Colonel Haines, attorney for the
Oregon Improvement Company, had called up the militia illegally without the
required request from the King County Sheriff. The mine owners promised each
militia company $500, in addition to their regular pay from the state. King
County deputy sheriffs arrested three black and three white Sullivan guards
for shooting from the train Sunday night and precipitating the riot. The
News editorialized on "Outraged Miners":
The "boys in blue" are, therefore, being used as hired Hessians under
the command of a hired corporation lawyer. The militia of the state is
being used by a Republican politician as an adjunct to the Pinkerton
15
detectives who are responsible for the murders of Sunday night. ^
Two companies of militia were ordered to Gilman July 2 , although
there was no disturbance. About fifty more scabs arrived to work the mines.
Colonel Haines claimed thirty guns for the strikers were sent to Gilman—
the train station master put the number at three. Haines charged the
strikers had 125 guns— a strike leader said sixty at most, normal for a
community where many people hunted. Although many militiamen sympathized
' A T *
with the strikers, the News reporter feared that Haines might precipitate
trouble so he could pose as a warrior.
On July 2 Governor Elisha P. Ferry ordered the militia to "disarm
all unauthorized armed bodies in Franklin, Gilman or elsewhere in King County,
where there is danger of a riot or breach of the peace. The miners
responded that they would willingly surrender their guns i f scabs and
Sullivans were also required to disarm. Franklin union miners were giving
up and leaving the area. The remaining sixty met in the Knights of Labor
hall July 6 and ratified an agreement providing that Sullivan guards would
be disarmed, that miners (scabs) would be disarmed except as needed for
company watchmen, and that the Home Guard or Citizens1 Company (union miners)
would turn over their arms to Captain Green of the militia, to be returned
when the King County Sheriff directed. The pact was signed by the captain
of the Home Guard and two committee members. Black Diamond miners, meeting
in the opera house, reached a similar agreement, signed by three committee
members. Newcastle miners voted not to give up their guns.
In spite of their collective decision, Franklin and Black Diamond
miners refused to surrender their rifles, fearing that scabs were secreting
their arms. They were sceptical of Oregon Improvement Company claims that
scabs and guards were disarmed. Two explosions at Newcastle were charged
to striking miners, one damaging a scab's cabin slightly and the other a
vacant house.
Over a month after the equity suit against the Sullivan guards was
file d , the complaint was dismissed July 7* because the guards were already
disarmed. Six militia companies were on duty by July 10 at the four mines.
Soldiers escorted scabs to and from the Newcastle mine. Captain Green
estimated cost to the state for Company D at Franklin for the first ten days
at $10,000, and Captain Fife claimed $15,000 would cover expenses of Tacoma
■ ' * ?
Company B at Gilman. Enlisted men received $1.50 a day and officers $3.00
and $3.00 for their horses.
In an elaborate resolution, probably drafted in Seattle, the black
scabs at Franklin blamed the union miners entirely for the June 28 violence
and affirmed their confidence in Colonel Haines, Superintendent Corey, and
King County Sheriff Woolery. L .E . Rader, editor of the Montesano Democrat,
charged that the Oregon Improvement Company planned to have 2,000 blacks at
work by October so they could establish state residence and vote in the
November 1892 election for candidates friendly to the mine owners.
Pierce County miners feared a similar attempt to replace them with
imported black scabs. In response to rumors early in July of a threatened
strike at South Prairie, Sheriff Price warned that he would arrest every
armed guard who was not a commissioned peace officer. When Superintendent
Corey and his bodyguard went to Wilkeson on July 23* one hotel refused them
admittance, and the other agreed to let them stay one night only. Learning
of their arrival, one hundred miners surrounded the hotel. The proprietor
evicted Corey and his guard, who walked to South Prairie.
E!y the end of July the strikes were finally broken. Many union
miners left the area, and the rest returned to work open shop on the mine
owners' terms.
l u o
Day Labor for City Workers
The ccxitroversy over day labor versus contract labor on city work
erupted periodically, with the unions always strongly advocating day labor.
The Ledger protested vehemently in May 1891 against a proposal that city
work be done by day labor, contending that property owners who petitioned
for improvements wanted the work done by contract. City work such as street
improvements was done either by the city directly (day labor) at wages of
$2.00 a day and $5*00 for teams, or by private contractors (contract labor)
paying $1.75 a day and $3.50 to $4.00 for teams. The Ledger argued:
And yet the pretended advocates of the people wholly disregard their
wishes and pander to what they suppose to be the wishes of somebody
else. To justify this course it must be assumed that those who own
property are the legitimate prey of those who do not; that men who are
struggling to provide houses of their own for their families should pay
tribute to those who are nob makirg such effort, and that a piece of
work will furnish more enployment at better prices if done by the city
than i f done by the contractor.
. . . And yet no real friend of the employed men should urge it for
that reason, and particularly not at this time. What is needed now more
than anything else is that employment for men who need it should be
provided. It will not be provided freely by those who can provide it
i f the most expensive methods of doing it are chosen. Money is just
17
now too hard to get for any purpose.
The City Council voted to have certain street improvements made by day labor.
Late in 1891* when another commission was appointed on the city
charter, the Trades Council drafted resolutions "beneficial to the working
c lass." A mass meeting of laborers February 5* 1892, resolved that city
/ io I
work should be done by day labor, that eight hours should constitute a day's
work, and that wages be paid weekly at no reduction of current rates. The
next night laborers crowded the City Council meeting, and again as many
jammed the sidewalk outside. The City Council adopted the Trades Council
proposal that a ll work be done by day labor, except where a majority of
residents in an assessment district stipulated contract work by written
petition, and that the eight-hour day should apply on both kinds of work.
The Trades Council also supported the proposal that the city either buy the
water works and electric plant or build its own public utilities.
The Chamber of Commerce and Commercial Club opposed both propositions,
and the Ledger argued strongly against "The Day Labor Amendment." The paper
warned of the dire consequences of the city's paying more than "natural laws"
(the contractors* rates) dictated. It predicted bankruptcy and charged that
employment would be by political favoritism, contending that day labor would
cost 12.5 to 25 percent more because workers were not pushed as hard as they
were by private contractors. Attempting to save working people from their
own folly , the Ledger asserted they would be worse off because they included
most of the property holders, and they would be taxed more for day labor.
By this day's labor plan of doing things therefore, most poor people
and people in moderate circumstances are really oppressed, while loud
pretense is made that "the workingmen" are benefited.
The day's-labor amendment to the charter proposed is nothing more
nor less than a vote-getting pretext. I f it carries, the few people
who work on the streets will be no better off than they are now, and
18
possibly not so well o ff.
The Trades Council urged workers to register to vote in the April
election on the charter amendments, but before the election the State Supreme
^ X .
Court declared the amendments invalid because they had been published in
only one paper instead of the required two; the City Council withdrew them,
criticized
The Democratic Party platform in the city election / the
incumbent administration for not responding to public demand for the charter
amendments and for failing to submit them legally. The platform endorsed
day labor and the eight-hour day and condemned the administration "in
conniving at and tolerating that pernicious system of contract labor, which
discriminates against reputable and honest home labor in favor of alien,
transient and irresponsible non-residents." The Democrats denounced
the corrupt ring of street contractors who, to enhance their own private
gain, maintain boarding houses under regulations and restrictions which
discriminate against the homes of resident labor, and by a corrupt and
illegitimate system of petty fines, assessments and charges robs labor
of its just reward, and degrades the citizenship and self-respect of
l a b o r .^ :
elected officials
With / failing to legislate improved conditions, city
laborers would apparently be obliged to emancipate themselves from the
contractors' natural laws of wages and hours through union organization.
Labor Day 1891
The Trades Council voted for "a grand street parade" on labor Day
1891. The state legislature passed a b il l earlier that year making Labor
Day a legal holidays and Mayor George B. Handle urged a l l businesses to
close during the forenoon. Most stores observed the holiday, and many
buildings were decorated. Two thousand workers marched in the parade, led
by Grand Marshal Frank Castle and two aides on prancing horses, a police
escort, and the mayor and city councilmen in carriages. Three divisions
of marchers were each preceded by a band, and floats and merchants' displays
followed the union contingents.
The Trades Council delegates headed the first division. Several
new unions appeared: 110 Butchers in long white robes on horseback with
their own band, 20 Linemen on a wagon made of telegraph poles, and 40 Shingle
Weavers with a man on a wagon turning out shingles. Four Horseshoers were
at work on their wagon with anvil and furnace, shoeing a horse. This year
the musicians in the bands were union.
Printers and Pressmen turned out strong, with three women members
of the Typographical riding in carriages. The Bakers, dressed in white,
carried two loaves of bread six feet long. The Bricklayers turned out
sixty-nine men, with two building a house on a float. Seventy Longshoremen
(the Number Ones) were in line, with two or three gangs working ships in
port. On motion by the Longshoremen's delegate, the Trades Council invited
the Knights of Labor Stevedores' Assembly to participate, but the Number
Twos did not march. Although they were not yet organized, forty streetcar
conductors marched. The Brewery Workers rode in a big wagon dispensing
beer from a keg.
Other union people in the parade were: forty-nine Tailors, forty
Carpenters, thirty-five Plasterers, thirty-five Cigar Makers, forty-five
Iron Molders, thirty-five Tinners and Cornice Makers, forty Painters in
white overalls, and twenty-five Machinists. The hop-picking season prevented
the Farmers' Alliances of Puyallup and Sumner from taking part.
After the parade a crowd of five hundred at the Armory heard speeches
by Judge Frank AlHyn; Franklin K. Lane, editor of the News; State Senator
Charles E. Claypool, a member of the Typographical Union; and the Rev. Dr.
W.E. Copeland. Feature event of the afternoon was a baseball game between
printers and cigarmakers, and the day ended with a ball attended by eight
/ ^ ? 3
hundred people.
How did employers view this exuberant celebration of organized
working people on the streets of a city they expected to run pretty much as
they pleased? Stores might be closed in deference to the mayor's request,
bub their proprietors had beaten down the Clerks' Union. Buildings might
be decorated, bub their owners likely belonged to the Chamber of Commerce
or Commercial Club, perennial opponents of the Trades Council on many civic
issues. The Ledger, faithful barometer of the business community, dismissed
the labor Day speeches as "demagogic."
I u s
CHAPTER XII
DIVERSITY IN THE UNION MOVEMENT
While working people in Tacoma were organizing and strengthening
their unions, profound structural changes were developing in the union
movement nationally. Rising influence in their Order of antitrade union
agrarians caused local, district, and national assemblies of wage workers to
leave the Knights and seek more congenial affiliation. Part of the decline
in the Knights, from 250,000 in 1887 to 100,000 in 1890, was because of these
defections. Many discontented groups of Knights joined the growing national
unions, and in a few cases they organized new national unions. Painters
organized in local Knights' assemblies withdrew from the Order in 1887 to
become the major group in a new national union of their trade. Perhaps the
sympathy of the Tacoma Painters' Union for the Knights reflected previous
ties and loyalties.
The strength of the Tacoma Trades Council depended on mutual tolerance
of diverse opinions and willingness to formulate a common program by consensus.
Socialists would have liked to involve the council in third-party politics,
but they did not press the point. Some trade unionists would have liked to
affiliate the council with the AFL, but they did not insist. Tension existed
in this accommodation, but usually the delegates did not permit their
differences to threaten the council's existence.
Unions and Political Action
The first apparent disagreements in the Trades Council arose over
Tacoma Labor's political goals and how best to achieve them. Should unionists
organize their own labor party to secure the reforms they demanded, or endorse
candidates of established parties pledged to support those reforms? The
ILL
same options confronted the union movement nationally, and Tacoma adopted
the same policy as the national majority.
The Trades Council voted April 24* 1890, to try to elect city
councilmen pledged to vote for the eight-hour day on city work. At the same
meeting, it was "Moved any Delegate who will work for any candidate of two
old Parties at Election be deprived of his seat. Withdrawn by unanimous
consent ,"■*■ Plainly, delegates would not be bound by any such prohibition,
and the council would endorse City Council candidates signing the eight-hour
pledge.
Many working people watched with apprehension the increase in size
and activity of the National Guard in various states. From a reserve force
to defend the nation, the Guard was becoming a police force to defend one
class against another. In his report to the legislature for 1886-1887,
Brigadier-General R,G, O'Brien, Adjutant General of Washington Territory,
called fo r increased support of the National Guard.
In these times of contention between capital and labor, and strife
between race within our borders; where the turbulent elements are so
easily excited to deeds of violence by unscrupulous demagogues; the better
classes of society, in the failure of the organized police to protect
their families, property and lives, naturally turn to a stronger force
than can be put forth an individual effort, and th is force is the
military arm of the state, which by its unity of action and through
discipline, becomes the "peace maker," upholding the law and destroying
anarchy,2
O'Brien pointed out that in the last thirty years population had
doubled, while the size i f the regular anry remained the same, concluding:
When i t is remembered that our increased population and wealth have
brought with them serious elements of ignorant social discontent, i t is
!U~)
clear that the efficiency of our national guard in every state has become
a matter of great solicitude, . . . If we expect in the future to need
to invoke the add of a military police to maintain social order, peace
and protection of life and property in our vast and rapidly growing
cities, we must make our militia in every state something better than
3
holiday soldiers.
Perhaps sentiments such as these prompted Tacoma unionists to oppose
money for the National Guard. In July 1890, "after an earnest debate," the
Trades Council voted to "prepare petitions to be circulated throughout the
state asking Legislature nob to make further appropriations for M ilit ia ."^
The petitions were prepared and referred to the affiliated unions. The
Knights and Retail Clerks approved unanimously, the Tinners and Cornice
Makers twelve to fiv e , and the Bakers twenty-nine to one. The Painters voted
eighteen in favor, Cigar Makers twenty-one, Brewers twenty-eight, and the
Nationalists approved. The Carpenters voted twelve to twenty-four against
the petition. The minutes do not record final disposition of the petition.
The third-party issue arose again September 1 8, when a motion was
passed that "each organization be asked whether they will go into a separate
political movement and stay with it upon honor. All unions not holding
. ..5
meetings before next Council being requested to hold special meetings."
The verdict came back promptly. Painters, Bakers, and Typographical were
against, Iron Molders could take no action under their rules, and Cigar Makers
were in favor. September 2 5 , "after a good deal of discussion in regard to
a Labor party voted the matter of Independent political action be laid on
the table.
The poll on a labor party was introduced at the same meeting that
delegates from the Socialistic Labor Party, Charles Drees, organizer, were
seated in the Trades Council. November 6 the delegates withdrew, with the
( W
announcement that they were suspending their local organization. Another
political organization, the Nationalist Club, was seated in the council from
June 19 to November 13, 1890, The club withdrew because most council delegates
thought affiliation should be confined to labor organizations, George
McMurphy considered the presence of these groups "valuable at the time for
its educational influence and the interests the delegates gave to the early
discussions in the Council.
Publication in 1888 of the novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy,
depicting an ideal society in the year 2000, led to formation of Nationalist
Clubs throughout the United States to work for this utopian state. Dr, W.E,
Copeland, minister of the Tacoma Unitarian Church, organized the first
Nationalist Club in Washington Territory in July 1889, In contrast to the
Socialists, who were likely working people, the Nationalists were probably
middle-class reformers and intellectuals, for Unitarian congregations tended
toward those types. Relations with the Nationalists remained friendly after
their withdrawal from the Trades Council, and the reformers supported the
unions on many issues. The Nationalists met at the Knights Hall in 1891#
Nothing more is known of the organization, whose members may have taken their
g
program into the Christian Socialist and Populist movements.
Knights in the Trades Council
Throughout the existence of the Trades Council, members of the Knights
mixed assembly were among the core of activists in the union movement. The
Knights Hall was a focal point for union activity, and many members were
active in other unions, notably the Cigar Makers and Tailors. Charles Drees,
who chaired the first council meeting, belonged to both the Knights- and
Cigar Makers. Plasterers, whose trade union never affiliated with the
Q
council, also belonged to the Knights.7
Knights Master Workman William Galvani, a c iv il engineer and former
president of the Spokane Trades Council, served on the organization and
legislative committees of the council. He edited the Northern Light. which
the council recognized as its official organ and undertook to buy. The
drive among the unions for funds fa iled, although many organizations favored
purchasing the paper and many subscribed for bundle orders. The Industrial
Federation of Washington was formed at Oakdale in March 1891 to unite
organized labor and the Farmers1 Alliance. Shortly thereafter, Galvani
withdrew from activity in the Trades Council to devote histtime to the
Farmers1 Alliance.
While the Trades Council accepted the Knights as a legitimate part
of the union movement, it objected strongly when the national office of the
Knights chartered the dual longshoremen late in 1890 as Stevedores' Assembly-
2943. At the meeting of the Trades Council January 2 2 , 1891,
Complaint entered by Longshoremen that the Longshoremen's Union No. 2
. . . has been organized as an Assembly K. of L . Voted a committee of
three be appointed to investigate the manner in which they secured their
charter and . . . charges they were working for less than union w a g e s .^
After hearing the report of the committee and voting down a motion
"that a committee be appointed to brirg about a coalition of the two unions,"
the ^council voted February 12 "that it is the sense of this body that the
organizer of the K. of L. revoke the charter of the K. of L. Longshoremen's
Assembly." The next motion, that "all organizations having delegates in
this body not organized under the trades union system their seats be declared
v a c a n t ,"^ lost eight to seven. Suddenly, the Knights were on the brink of
ostracism from the union movement.
At the council meeting the next week a delegation from the Stevedores'
Assembly stated their side of the controversy, and the council heard the
'
l i b
report of the committee appointed to draw up charges against the Number Twos,
The council accepted the draft of the charges, voted to furnish a copy to
the Stevedores1 Assembly, and invited their representatives to the following
meeting to defend themselves, February 26 Charles Seymour, William Flynn,
Orlando Carter, T. Dixon, M. Shanahan, and A. Enright appeared before the
council to answer charges against the Stevedores' Assembly,
Mr, Seymour gave some facts in regard to various secessions, Mr,
M, Shanahan then denied the charge of withdrawing at request of McCabe
or givipg short time. Mr, Carter denied having withdrawn from Longshoremen1 s
Union at request of McCabe. Discussion then ensued between visiting
committee & members of Council. Moved that Mr. Dunbar be instructed to
write to Mr. Gavigan i f he wrote constitution for Stevedores Assembly
and received $10 for same from McCabe. Lost. Moved report laid on
table & Comm, appointed to create harmony between two Longshoremen's.
Lost 11 to 13• Moved strike out had previously seceded from Stevedores
12 Cooperative Company. Lost. . . . Report adopted as amended.
The charges were sent to Knights General Secretary John W. Hayes in
Philadelphia, without any result. May 28 the Trades Council attempted to
settle the trouble between the two longshoremen1 s unions by appointing a
committee of three to meet with like committees from the longshoremen.
Unable to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Stevedores' Assembly,
the council committee gave up after two months.
The attempt of the Knights of Labor longshoremen later that year to
join the Trades Council precipitated open hostility between supporters of
the Knights and other delegates. November 1 2 , 1891, the Trades Council
refused to seat delegates from the Stevedores' Assembly. December 10 a
motion "that secretary be instructed to notify Stevedores Union why they
n i
had been refused Admission to the Trades Council" lost unanimously, and the
council voted “to notify the K. of L. No. 4223 to withdraw their delegates
from the Trades C o u n c i l ."^
In reponse to a letter from the mixed assembly asking an explanation
of the notice to withdraw, the council appointed a committee January 7 to
consider the request. The following week, with only two committee members
present, and in disagreement, the council reaffirmed by a vote of twenty-two
to eight the request that the Knights withdraw. January 21 credentials for
a delegate from the Knights were.)not received, and the delegates voted to
look for another h a ll, as they were meeting at the Knights Hall. January 28
a letter from the Knights protesting their expulsion was file d , and the
council voted to inquire into AFL affiliation. February 4 the Shingle
Weavers withdrew from the council, reason not recorded, and a week later the
Painters withdrew because of the expulsion of the Knights. March 3 the
Trades Council voted down a motion to affiliate with the AFL.
There the union movement remained for several months, divided but
not irrevocably split. By May 5 the Painters were back in the council, and
the Shingle Weavers returned delegates by July 21. September 1 , 1892, the
mixed assembly of the Knights was readmitted to the Trades Council. The
formal breach was healed, but perhaps wounded feelings remained.
Although the Knigjits were assigned a place in the line of march in
the 1890 and 1891 Labor Day parades, their organization is not mentioned in
reports of the parades. Presumably their members marched with the trade
unions to which they also belonged. In the 1892 parade, two hundred Knights
marched behind their own banner, and the Cigar Makers and Painters were
missing for the fir st time. Perhaps the recent confrontation in the Trades
Council caused the Knights thus to reaffirm their strength publicly.
Thereafter the mixed assembly of the Knights remained active in the
Trades Council, but Stevedores1 Assembly 2943 made no more attempts to gain
recognition. Mutual tolerance evidently returned. Reunification of the
union movement came at the same time that increasing signs of economic
distress appeared^in the city.
Hard Tine s Foreshadowed
Tacoma's boom was flattening out as dull times began to settle across
the nation. In April 1892 the Trades Council discussed the question of "how
best to stop the importation of surplus labor to city without hindering
growth of c ity ," and voted to take up the subject of "how best to reach
non-union m e n . T h r o u g h o u t the summer delegates reported conditions dull
or quiet in about half the trades. A letter from "Employee" in the Ledger
in August complained of the hard times:
What is a man thrown out of employment (and positions are not to
be found now) to do? Are our business men at a ll responsible? Right
here in Tacoma firms are cutting down; men are being sacrificed; trusted
and reliable employees are thrown out (married men thrown out in many
cases and single men retained), their salaries small, perhaps, and
possibly greater demands upon them than can be seen from the surface.
They have barely sufficed to keep the family together, but the position
is lost through no fault of the employee. Now what?
Are business men not responsible? Would it not be wise for them to
consider the question, and while feeling the hard times themselves,
inquire as to the effect of the same hard times upon the thrown out
15
employee?
The Ledger replied that workers shoUld try .to make themselves so valuable
they would not be laid off.
' 7 2 .
/ 7 3
Working people continued to push stubbornly to improve their economic
situation. A Cooks and Waiters1 Social Club was formed in February 1892,
meeting at the Kni^its Hall. The union formed the previous year had not
lasted. The Morning Globe suspended publication in February, throwing forty
printing trades people out of work. In the midst of the controversy in the
4 ,f
Trades Council over unseating the Knights, the Stevedores, Longshoremen and
Riggers received an AFL charter as Federal Local 5627, dated March 7* 1892.
The AFL issued charters directly to local unions in trades where no national
union yet existed.
The Carpenters' Union held an open meeting in March on the eight-hour
day, addressed by Folquart Wolland of the Knights. Union carpenters worked
ten hours for $2.50 a day, and many unorganized men were on piece work. In
spite of their desire for shorter hours, carpenters were not well enough
organized to win the demand. .
The Street Railway Operatives' Union was organized with the help of
the Trades Council in April 1892. The operatives' action may have been
prompted by a proposal April 1 to change pay for conductors and motormen
from a monthly rate of between $65 and $75 to an hourly rate of from sixteen
to twenty-one cents for a twelve-hour day with no overtime. Under the
monthly rate, pay continued while cars were in the shop for repairs. On
long runs the men worked twelve hours a day.
The musicians struggled to maintain their union. The Theatre Comique
defaulted in August 1892 on payment of $433*85 in back salaries due its
musicians. After the union withdrew its members the theater hired scabs,
and the union called for a boycott. The boycott failed to move the theater,
and in succeeding months the union began to disintegrate. When the musicians
reorganized the following February, two organizations sent delegates to the
Trades Council. After investigating, the council seated delegates from
' n H
Musicians' Protective Union Local 37 and refused to recognize Harmony Lodge,
which perhaps was a faction split off from the original union. Unorganized
theater ushers struck, without apparent result. Some newsboys selling the
News struck briefly for more money for returned papers, declaring they would
form a union.
Profile of the Union Movement
The big wave of organizing occurred before the Trades Council was
formed, coinciding with Tacoma's rapid growth. With the essential union
structure in place, the council became the binder to maximize the strength
of individual unions. During the years of the Trades Council, about
forty-seven unions existed in Tacoma, including those of federal employees
at the post office and the railroad operating crafts. Many local unions
belonged to their national organizations. After the initial period of
organization, Trades Council membership ranged between sixteen and twenty-two
unions at any one time; only twelve were never affiliated with the council.
Two unions existed successively in the young electrical trade, a lodge of
the United Order of Linemen, organized before 1891, and Local 76 of the
National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, organized in 1894*
Taking the eight-hour day as a measure of strength, most of the
strong unions were identified with the council: the Cigar Makers and
Typographical, which were continuous and active members; a cluster of
skilled building trades unions, the Bricklayers, Tinners and Comice Makers,
and Stone Cutters, which were affiliated most of the time; and the Plumbers,
which joined the council early in 1894« The remaining eight-hour unions
were not affiliated: the Plasterers, Letter Carriers, and Post Office
Clerks. The Iron Molders and Longshoremen, both of which controlled the
work in their trades, were active in the council. As in other communities,
n s
the railroad operating crafts took little part in the organization*
Some of the weakest unions, judging by their short-lived or sporadic
existence, were in the service trades: the Bootblacks, Cooks and Waiters,
Retail Clerks, and Barbers, reflecting possibly a combination of intense
competition and lack of skill in some of the jobs in these trades.
When called upon, the Trades Council assisted unions by sending
committees to wait upon offending employers and boycotting as a last resort.
The council voted to boycott a baker who persisted in working seven days.
Threat of a boycott against the Tacoma Bakery resulted in an agreement to
hire union men. A Trades Council committee investigated trouble between the
Brewery Workers and Puget Sound Brewery.
One more controversy in the Trades Council possibly reflected
differences between Knights and other delegates. The Tailors' Union withdrew
from the council early in 1892 because of dissatisfaction over the presence
of a brother tailor and the practice of endorsing political candidates without
notice to affiliated unions. The minutes do not state the union's objection
to the tailo r. Two months later the Trades Council seated as delegates from
the Knights Drummond, who had been elected president of the council the
beginning of the year while delegate from the Tailors; R.H. Norton, cashier
of the Sun Publishing Company; and Albert Briggs, a carpenter. The Tailors
returned to the council in November.
Arrival at Tacoma of the first China steamer in June 1892, inaugurating
regular steamship service with the Orient, brought a demand by business
interests to permit Chinese merchants to return to the city. Latent
anti-Chinese feeling flared up, and the Committee of Fifteen was revived.
Rejecting an invitation to appoint members to the committee, the Trades
Council appointed its own committee "to act for the* Council in opposition
to the introduction of Chinese into the c i t y . " ^ The council resolved
I l L
that the return of the Chinese to this city is a calamity that should
be averted i f possible, and we pledge ourselves in every way to assist
the Committee of Fifteen in its efforts to prevent this return, and to
arouse the public to the danger that lies in the presence of the
17
Mongolian pest.
The Ledger defended the return of Chinese merchants as necessary for direct
trade with China and explained that those sponsoring the merchants1 return
upheld continued exclusion of "coolies• " November 3 the Cigar Makers held a
ball to commemorate the Chinese expulsion in 1885* A year later a Trades
Council committee found no Chinese employed as servants in Tacoma,
State Labcr Congress
As the unions turned from third-party politics to emphasis on specific
labor legislation, they recognized the need for a voice at sessions of the
state legislature. The printers took the lead. During the session in J am m y
1891, they advised the Trades Council that the Typographical Union had fonned
a legislative committee "to look after labor legislation and offering their
influence and assistance in same and asking us to forward requests to our
18
representatives to assist in getting their hearings before committees."
During the next meeting of the legislature in 1893* the Seattle
Western Central Labor Union and the Tacoma Trades Council jointly sponsored
a labor Congress in Olympia, The Trades Council sent five delegates and the
Bricklayers, not affiliated with the council, two. Upon concluding their
deliberations, representatives of the Labor Congress read their report to
ths House of Representatives, sitting as a Committee of the Whole.
The labor delegation supported bills before the House to enact a
strong lien law for labor and materials; to prevent private persons or
' 7 ?
corporations from employing armed men or detectives; to exempt homestead
improvements up to one thousand dollars from taxation; to provide for
destruction of the Canadian thistle; to regulate interest on state, county,
city, and school warrants; and to prohibit collection of hospital and other
dues from railroad and other employees. Labor also asked for legislation to
compel employers to pay cash wages weekly; to provide free text books for
children in common schools; and to provide for the initiative and referendum.
The union representatives supported "a law making i t a misdemeanor
to dismiss or refuse employment to any person because of their affiliation
with any organization not organized in violation of la w ,” and presented "a
resolution denouncing Mr. Anderson of Whatcom as a tool of corrupt capitalists
and corporations for introducing a b il l to protect laborers in their right
19
to labor and punish obstructionists." Senator Charles E . Claypool from
Pierce County endorsed the demands, except the denunciation of Anderson.
Following the congress the Bricklayers resolved "that it is far the
good of Labor that the Labor Congress meet every year during the session of
20 the Legislature," and the Trades Council voted to make the congress a
permanent organization to meet while the legislature was in session. Hard
times or Populist politics evidently sidetracked the congress in 1895* but
in December 1894 the Tacoma Trades Council voted to "prepare a summary of
Laws in the interests of Labor most imperatively demanded at the hands of
the next Legislature with a view to have steps taken to secure the support
21 of the Pierce County members fcr same." Conventions were resumed in 1898,
and the Washington State labor Congress became the Washington State Federation
of Labor in 1902.
Fraternal Ties with Other Unions
The Tacona union movement was linked in two ways to the rest of the
n i
nation's organized working people. Many trade unions maintained ties through
the dr national organizations with sister locals across the country, and the
Trades Council established fraternal relations with similar citywide
organizations•
A quarrel between the United Brewery Workmen's Union and its rebel
San Francisco a ffiliate in 1891 led to formation of a regional labor federation
with which the Tacoma Trades Council was affiliated. The San Francisco
Federated Trades Council was suspended from the AFL in 1890 for supporting
the outlaw brewers' local against a new local chartered by the national union.
Thereupon, the Federated Trades Council, whose president was Alfred Fuhrman
of the rebel Brewery Workers, convened a coast wide meeting of delegates from
central labor bodies in San Francisco on September 2 1 , 1891. The delegates
formed the Pacific Coast Council of Trades and Labor Federations and elected
the only Washington delegate, W.G. Armstrong of the Western Central Labor
Union, vice-president. With its declared purpose of uniting a ll local
councils in the West, the Pacific Coast Council was a direct challenge to
22 the AFL.
When the Tacoma Trades Council voted in August 1892 to a ffiliate with
the Pacific Coast Council, the Locomotive Firemen withdrew from the Trades
Council and would not return, even after the council's organization committee
visited them to explain the coastwide organization. The Tacoma Trades Council
sent three delegates to the second convention of the Pacific Coast Council
dLn Seattle on June 5 , 1893* P*B. EJgbert of the Tacoma Railway Carmen was
elected fir st vice-president, but Tacoma withdrew from the body four months
later. Early the next year the federation met for the last time. On a more
informal basis, the Tacoma Council exchanged minutes with trades councils
in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland,
Mendocino City, Portland, and Seattle.
/7